{UAH} The man who sights the moon in Saudi deserts

The man who sights the moon in Saudi deserts

Afew weeks ago, as Abdullah al-Khodairi was travelling along the desert road that connects his small town of Hotat al-Sudeir, in northern Saudi Arabia, to the capital, Riyadh, he asked his friends to pull over. On that windy night, in the pitch darkness, they sat on the sand waiting for the silver moon to rise. For the next hour, Khodairi, armed with pen and paper, recorded the movement of the moon.

 

The 55-year-old Saudi's life has long been in sync with the moon. He knows when and how it rises, falls or turns, for Khodairi observes the angles of the shadows that fall on the moon's craters at every stage in its cycle.

 

The moon, he says, is his life. As well as being an object of fascination, it offers him a daily reminder of God's greatness. "No one can really capture the magnificence of the universe unless you follow the orbits as they move in the sky in an immaculate system, with each orbit having a precise path," he explains.

 

But as the Islamic month of Ramadan, when Muslims around the world fast during daylight hours, nears, Khodairi begins to feel the weight of the world on his shoulders. Entrusted by Saudi authorities with observing the new crescent, which signals the beginning of Ramadan, his understanding of the moon helps to determine when many of the world's Muslims begin their fast.

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Gwokto La'Kitgum

"Even a small dog can piss on a tall Building", Jim Hightower

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